CHARLES ALAN WRIGHT
1927- 2000
THE AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE
Memorial Tributes
to Charles Alan Wright
Delivered at the Reception of
The American Law Institute
in London, England,
on July 17, 2000
President Michael Traynor: On behalf of The American Law Institute, we welcome you to our reception, arranged here at the Army & Navy Club with the help of Mima Turner. It gives me great pleasure as well to introduce our wonderful Director, Lance Liebman. Lance. (Applause)
Fifteen years ago The American Law Institute held a reception in London. Rod Perkins was then our distinguished President and is now our eminent Chair of the Institute's Council, and I am delighted to introduce Rod to you.
Chair of the Council Roswell B. Perkins: Thank you all for coming. I simply wanted to say that I have very happy memories from 15 years ago when so many of you were present. The sadness of the recent events concerning Charlie will be spoken of by others so I will leave that to others, but I do want to say how proud we are to have as his successor Mike Traynor, who has done a tremendous amount for the Institute, both as First Vice President and long before that. His election has just been confirmed, having been initiated last year when he became the President Designate, so a toast to Mike, and thank you all for coming.
President Traynor: Thank you, Rod, for your gracious remarks and for your continued wonderful service to The American Law Institute.
Rod was succeeded as President by the great Charles Alan Wright, who initiated tonight's event and who looked forward with keen pleasure to celebrating the millennium here. Charlie died, as you know, on July 7 after suffering complications from surgery.
In addition to his stunning achievements in the law, Charlie was an outstanding American, a wise and inspiring leader, a winning football coach for the Legal Eagles at the University of Texas, and an engaging correspondent. He was a mentor and friend. We once even exchanged letters about the obscure history of the stymie in golf, and he would grin with pleasure when I complimented him on his selection of tie and pocket square and when he playfully commented on my choice for that evening.
Charlie admired England. He appreciated its rich traditions and its language, and he enjoyed, with his wonderful wife, Custis, many English friends. England was an auspicious base for Charlie to build the Institute's international outreach and the participation of leading judges, scholars, and lawyers from other countries.
Charlie's masterful personality was unique, combining various memorable qualities: dignity accompanied by wit, resoluteness tempered by compassion, scholarship attended by practicality, and grand vision matched by precise attention to detail. Although he held strong beliefs, one of the strongest beliefs was that others should be free to think and express their own opinions, no matter how different. He was a brilliant, elegant, and vital man. He was a splendid man, to use a word that he would say in compliments to others. We sorely miss him.
In this historic city, a treasure of the common-law tradition, we honor him by remembering him here with these words and by renewing our dedication to the work of the Institute that he so effectively and so bravely led.
With us tonight to help us celebrate Charlie's life and to mark the continuity of his life's work with a few words in his honor are Justice Ruth Ginsburg of our country's Supreme Court, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, Sir David Williams, and Professor Gareth Jones, and we may be joined by Lord Chief Justice Woolf.
I invite Justice Ruth Ginsburg to say a few words.
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Charles Alan Wright, as I wrote to Custis, was such a leader in the law, it is hard to think of the profession without the involvement of his bright mind. Among his many talents, he was a great writer of letters. Our correspondence goes back many years. He advised me on mystery novels worth reading. We had an ongoing exchange on the propriety of using the grammar-book word "gender" in lieu of the more stirring word "sex." I also sought his approval, despite his colleague Garner's view to the contrary, for retaining the word "shall" in the Supreme Court Rules when all other Federal Rules had changed over to the more blunt "must."
But in the main, we corresponded about opinions on procedure, from my early years as a law teacher, through my tenure on the D. C. Circuit, up to the current Supreme Court term. My letters were typically brief, like this one from February 24, 2000. Enclosing an opinion released that week, one on the authority of a federal court of appeals to instruct the entry of judgment as a matter of law, I asked, simply: "Did we get this one right?" Charlie made my day when he replied, "What a question! Of course you got it exactly right." He said something more, perhaps sensing that the year was a trying one for me: "You are turning out opinions at a great rate. I hope I am right in thinking that this is a very good sign about your health."
I will read from just one other letter, dated April 17, 1998, showing again the deeply caring side of Charlie Wright. I had written an introduction to a 1998 issue of the Texas Law Review honoring Charlie, and sent him a copy. Charlie wrote to say he was pleased and explained why. These are his words:
When Doug Laycock wrote the nice piece about me that you cite in several places, John Frank sent him a letter and sent a copy to me. John told Doug that he loved the article, but that he was surprised by two omissions, “both going to the core of the man.” The first, [John Frank] said, was “the intense dedication to Custis and the family.” And the other “is the extraordinary nature of his friendships. They have an intensity and a steadiness which most of us can't match.” This is why I was so pleased [Charlie wrote] when in the very first line in which you talked about me you refer to “his cherished life partner, Custis Wright,” and also that … you called me “the quintessential friend."
The great man I once described as a Colossus standing at the summit of our profession was indeed to so many gathered here “the quintessential friend.” We will miss not only his extraordinary scholarship and magnetic advocacy, but above and beyond those qualities, his caring concern for those who joined with him in striving to serve the legal system honorably.
President Traynor: Justice Ginsburg, thank you for those moving words for our friend Charlie Wright and for you and Marty joining us tonight.
Now I would like to call on Lord Lester of Herne Hill.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill: Thank you very much. It is a great privilege to be able to say anything about Charlie this evening. I knew him much less well than Justice Ginsburg or many of you who are here this evening. I guess I've known him only for half-a-dozen years, but he was for me that very rare person, a citizen of the world, who was always interested in everything that he came across. He was, as Ruth Ginsburg said, an inveterate letter writer, with an insatiable curiosity, and I looked back at some of his letters.
He became particularly interested in what the British were doing about having a Bill of Rights or a Human Rights Act, and I suppose that's what first threw us together a few years ago. He came over and witnessed some of our debates in the House of Lords and then he began to bombard me with letters, asking me all kinds of questions, like, "What is the Salsbury Convention?," which I then tried to explain to him, to the extent that I understood it myself. In one of his replies, now two and a half years ago, he said that he had read the parliamentary debate, that he had read the notes on the Salsbury Doctrine. He said, "The note helped me to understand some of the things I had read earlier. I now see the difference between a wrecking amendment and a probing amendment. I found the debate extremely interesting. I can understand why by 9:45 p.m. on a day that began at 2:15 members of your House would be growing tired. I know that I would. It seemed to me that by about 5:47 some testiness entered the debate, and I expect that the time of day helped cause that." "Of course," he said, "I took great pleasure in seeing you and Nico" — that's Lord Browne-Wilkinson, who is, happily, here tonight — "and Robin Cooke" — that's Lord Cooke, who is also here tonight — "participating in the debate, and though I cannot put my finger on it, I think I recall that one speaker, perhaps you, refer to the fact that yet another Institute member, Lord Wilberforce, was in the House and listening to the debate. But," he said, "there is one" — this is very Charlie-like — "one little detail on which you could enlighten me. What is the significance of beginning an intervention by saying 'Before the noble lord sits down'?" And I wrote to explain what that meant. (Laughter) He then ended it with an appeal for funds for The American Law Institute. (Laughter)
It seems to me a particularly unkind cruelty of fate that Charlie, who organized all of this to celebrate this great gathering and the internationalism that unites us across the Atlantic, should not be present this evening, but, if I may say so, he is a noble lord who for me will never sit down. Thank you.
President Traynor: Thank you, Lord Lester, for that really wonderfully vivid picture you have given us of Charlie Wright.
Let me call now on Sir David Williams, a friend of Charlie's and a speaker at one of our recent Annual Dinners.
Sir David Williams: Charles Alan Wright, whom I knew for 27 years, would have been especially pleased to be at this reception in London, both because he valued immensely his presidency of The American Law Institute and because he was a great friend of this country. Even in 1973, at the height of his involvement in the early unfolding of Watergate, he sought a brief respite in London and Cambridge and a special relationship was born, culminating last year in his election to the British Academy.
He was a frequent visitor to Cambridge, most recently in February of this year. In 1984 he was a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, living in an apartment still known as the Charles Alan Wright flat (laughter). In 1991 he was the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science and he gave a memorable course on American constitutional law. In 1994 he joined the Board of Trustees of the American Friends of Cambridge University and he served in an advisory capacity at the Center for Public Law at Cambridge. Just as he was an adopted son of Texas but a proud Texan nonetheless, so he was an adopted son of Cambridge but a proud Cambridge man nonetheless.
Charlie's immense contributions to the law, in teaching, research, publications, practice, and service on state and national bodies are well known. He was one of the outstanding lawyers of the second half of the 20th century.
He will be remembered, not least in this country, as much for his personal qualities as for his professional achievements. To Custis and their children and their grandchildren he was devoted. To his friends and colleagues he was loyal. To his students he was committed, and he leaves a legacy of deep respect and affection.
On his 70th birthday I wrote that he demonstrated the wisdom of Harry Truman's belief that it was remarkable what you could achieve if you didn't care who got the credit, (laughter) for he constantly strove to ensure that others should be encouraged, that they should, as he stood back, enjoy their day in the sun. He was also a kind, generous man.
Only months ago, after he had been named as one of the most influential lawyers in the United States, he wrote that his life had been richly blessed. My response in my last letter to him in mid June was to add that he had been amply endowed, in the words of William Wordsworth, with
that best portion of a good man’s life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
Of kindness and of love.
President Traynor: Sir David, thank you for your eloquent memories of Charlie.
The American Law Institute is, in a sense, the academy of our profession. It is a great forum for judges, lawyers, and teachers to meet and share views without regard to clients or interests. It is fitting, therefore, that we call on another teacher of the law, a great teacher, to conclude the remarks tonight. I would like to call on Professor Gareth Jones.
Professor Gareth Jones: It is always a pleasure, I think, to meet friends in gracious surroundings, but it is sad that on this occasion we meet to pay tribute to Charlie Wright, who conceived the idea of this social gathering and would have reveled in his role as a genial, welcoming host. It is tonight Hamlet without the Prince.
His death was a great personal sadness. We had known each other since 1973. Ron Degnan, a member of the Berkeley Law Faculty, wrote to tell me that Charlie was going to visit Cambridge and asked if I would look after him. I was about to leave for the U. S. and it was my wife who entertained him and Custis and his daughter, Henny. Shortly afterwards I met Charlie and we saw each other regularly on what were to become frequent visits to the “other Cambridge,” as Erwin Griswold teasingly called my fair city. In Cambridge he made as many friends as in Austin and its law school, to which he was devoted and where he arranged my visit in the fall of 1993.
Charlie was a big man in every sense of that adjective, a formidable frame, a powerful intellect. His legal memory, constant recall, never ceased to astonish me. He was a courageous parent and citizen who believed passionately in a United States which should be free of ethnic discrimination. It was typical of the man that he took away his daughter from a school which refused to admit black students.
What are my personal memories of Charlie? He was first and foremost a companion whom one always looked forward to meeting, constantly challenging, never aggressively so, a correct but not pedantic grammarian who respected the proper use of the English language, a person who enjoyed material comfort, had an engaging sense of humor, and was a most hospitable host. "Let us now eat, drink, and be merry" can be, surely must be, one of his many epitaphs.
For Custis, his children and grandchildren, his death is an irreparable blow. He and Custis were such close companions that it is difficult to think of the one without the other. I am sure that you will join me in sending Custis and the family our deepest sympathy.
Let us then this evening give thanks for the life of Charles Alan Wright, a distinguished American and a devoted friend of this country.
President Traynor: Thank you so much. Charlie would have absolutely loved those words. And I see we now are lucky to have Lord Chief Justice Woolf with us. If you will say a few words, Lord Chief Justice.
Lord Chief Justice Woolf: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I had the great privilege of becoming a part of the membership of the Institute thanks to Charlie Wright. He spent a memorable year here, where he made a huge number of friends. At the last dinner, I believe, of the Institute in Washington I was able to speak. I said what I deeply believed, that your Institute had an institution as President. We would have loved to see more of him; whenever we went to the States we tried to do so.
He had an amazing range of qualities that made him a magnificent companion, a distinguished mentor who had colossal knowledge of what really matters in the law, and of course he was a wonderful husband and father to his family. I am sure there are many here this evening who, like myself, used to obtain immense pleasure when they opened the Christmas card which came with those magnificent photographs of the continually expanding family. I can only say on behalf of his many — and there are a great many — friends and admirers among the British judiciary that we were shocked and saddened deeply by the news of Charlie's death. We send to Custis our warmest regards and affection.
We have magnificent memories of Charlie, as I have sought to say. I know Custis has many more. I am sure they must be a great comfort to her. Thank you very much indeed.
President Traynor: We had originally asked our speakers this evening, during the time of Charlie's illness, to come and make a few remarks for a videotape that could be sent as a greeting card for him to enjoy while he was in the hospital, and then he died, so I asked our speakers, and they very graciously said that they would, to make the remarks they made tonight.
If Charlie were here he would view it as a splendid occasion, with all the nice words that have been said in his memory. I would like to close with a simple toast to our great and splendid President, Charles Alan Wright. Thank you.